WHILE ATTENDING A SAFE NZ ‘Go Veg’ talk this evening in Grey Lynn, Auckland, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the SAFE team had arranged for some food to be served afterwards. Actually, I was more than pleasantly surprised: I was thrilled, especially when I found out that the food was home made by a vegan chef who’d just started her own business. The rather delightful Andrea is the lady behind La Chimba Wholefood Kitchen.

Chipotle Chile

Andrea offers ready-made meals for the health conscious – frozen meals for time-poor people who still want to eat well. Meals that are plant based, vegan, seasonal, organic where possible and free of preservatives and junk. This is exactly the kind of service that makes sense to me, as I sometimes arrive home after a long day of wrangling ad agency folk, only to be met by a fridge and pantry that are less than welcoming.

As Andrea puts it on her website: “This selection of frozen meals was inspired by my own experience of looking for something warming, nourishing and healthy on those days when I just couldn’t find the time to cook.”

These meals are currently available from Wingate Superette, 1/2057 Great North Road, Avondalek, but deliveries in central Auckland are available for orders of $50 or over.

Andrea also mentioned that she caters but hasn’t started promoting this as yet, so if you’re looking for someone to put some good vegan food on your table for an event, she might be the one to do it. After sampling her cuisine this evening, especially that spicy chocolate mousse, I reckon I’ll be adding a few of her meals to my freezer (for emergency use of course).

There are a couple of recipes on her site – the Creamy Avocado Salsa is on my to eat list this weekend! Check it out here.